Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers - Review

Posted: 07/02/13

The original Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers was an accessible, digital version of the long-reigning champion of collectible card games. Lands were tapped, creatures were summoned, spells were flung, and people downloaded. The idea worked well enough to bear repeating. With the game’s fourth sequential release, Duels of the Planeswalkers series is once again freshened up with a bit of the new and novel. Additions include an updated interface, new cards and decks, and the new sealed deck mode goes out on a wobbly limb to add an element that’s been missing from the digital series for quite a while.

In Magic you put down land cards that can be tapped for magical energy, which over the course of the game lets you cast increasingly powerful spells as you attempt to best your opponent, breaking their defenses with creatures or achieving an alternate win condition. Once again a voiced tutorial makes it relatively easy to get a grip on the relatively complex set of rules that give Magic its depth and longevity. As advertised, this is probably a neophyte’s best bet for learning how to play Magic.

Once you know your way around an enchantment you can battle other players online or offline, set out to solve a series of wizardly puzzles that require smart solutions to overcome complex board setups, or follow the hot-blooded Chandra Nalaar through a fairly straightforward quest to vanquish her rivals. By focusing more on the fiction that’s built up around the cards, the game knowingly exposes its dorkier side, but the way the campaign is divided into different settings -- exploring the flavor and mechanics of various card sets with themed challenges -- works extremely well and could give players an idea of what real life sets they’d want to get into should they ever get into the paper side of the hobby.

As you play you’ll unlock a wide range of decks built on various themes that demonstrate Magic’s impressive variety and diversity. These well-constructed card collections are enjoyable and highly effective, and you can unlock new cards with which to customize each virtual spell book. Or, for the first time in the series, you can make build your own deck from scratch in the new sealed deck mode. Sealed deck mode actually simulates your opening packs of cards, drawing from a pool of 151 potential picks. You’ll have to recognize your best cards, decide which colors you want to include, and make the best deck you can. If you like, the game can automatically fill out your deck after you pick your key cards, or even build your entire deck from scratch.

Besting an opponent with a spell book of your own creation adds another layer of satisfaction to your victories. There’s a large component of luck to Magic, and in its best moments you’ll feel as if your clever decisions have earned every stroke of good luck you experience. When you’ve put every potential piece in place yourself, that satisfaction is only amplified. It feels good to be handed this power, but it’s just not enough. You’re only given two slots to experiment with in this new mode, and once you’ve opened your packs you can’t delete or override that pool. The game offers you the option to pay in order to unlock additional slots, but it’s an unappealing offer considering the total number of cards is so small that there’s little room to create a truly unique deck or strategy.

It seems almost a given that sealed deck play will be expanded and improved with future updates, but in its present state it’s not quite the jewel in the crown that it could have been. Remaining quibbles are only minor. A certain amount of cards and graphics have been recycled, but much of what was kept was worth keeping. Text and numbers can be difficult to read on smaller televisions, and the options for local cooperative play feel restrictive.

There are a few unique niceties players of past games will pick up on. A number of rare and powerful cards now featuring art that animates as if it were a hologram, for example. It’s not much, but brings a bit of life to a game that so often looks static. Magic 2014 is still well worth its modest ten dollar price tag, but players looking to jump into a duel for the first time would be better served by the better-rounded 2012 and 2013 versions of the series, even if their art doesn’t move.

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